➤ ANTHONY WONG, from p.32
with homosexuality still criminalized
until 1991, he did not state his
sexuality directly.
That changed in 2012, a politically
active year that brought Hong
Kongers out against a now-defunct
plan to give Beijing tighter control
over grade school curriculum. Raymond
Chan Chi-chuen was elected
to the Legislative Council, becoming
the city’s fi rst out gay legislator.
In a concert, Wong used a play on
the Chinese word “tongzhi,” which
has an offi cial meaning of comrade
in the communist sense, but also
homosexual in modern slang. By
fl ashing the word about himself
and simultaneously about an unpopular
Hong Kong leader considered
loyal to the Chinese Communist
Party, he came out.
“The 2012 show is about identity
about Hong Kong, because the
whole city is losing its identity,” he
said. “So I think I should be honest
about it. It is not that I had been
very dishonest about it, I thought I
was honest enough.”
That same year he founded Big
Love Alliance with Denise Ho, who
also came out that year. The LGBTQ
rights group organizes Hong
Kong’s queer festival Pink Dot,
which has its roots in Singapore’s
LGBTQ movement. Given the current
unrest, however, Pink Dot
will not be held this year in Hong
Kong.
As out celebrities using their star
power to promote LGBTQ issues,
Wong and Ho follow in the footsteps
of fellow Hong Konger Leslie
Cheung, the late actor and singer
known for “Farewell My Concubine”
(1993), “Happy Together”
(1997), and other movies where he
played gay or sexually ambiguous
characters.
“He is like the biggest star in
Hong Kong culture,” said Wong,
adding he was not a close friend
though the two collaborated on
an album shortly before Cheung’s
2003 suicide.
Wong said that some might
think he came to North America at
an odd time, while his native city
is literally burning. However, he
wanted to help others connect to
Hong Kong.
“My tool is still primarily my music,
I still use my music to express
myself, and part of my concern is
about Hong Kong, about the world,
and I didn’t want to cancel this
tour in the midst of all this unrest,”
he said. “In this trip I learned that
I could encourage more people to
keep an eye on what is going on in
Hong Kong.”
Wong worries about the future
of LGBTQ rights in Hong Kong, explaining,
“We are trying to fi ght for
the freedom for all Hong Kongers. If
Hong Kongers don’t have freedom,
the minorities won’t.”
That’s why he values Taiwan’s
marriage equality law and its leadership
in Asia on LGBTQ rights.
“I am so happy that Taiwan has
done that and they set a very good
example in every way and not just
in LGBT rights, but in democracy,”
he said.
Wong was clear in his message to
the US, warning “what is happening
to Hong Kong won’t just happen
to Hong Kongers, it will happen to
the free world, the West, all those
crackdowns, all those censorships,
all those crackdowns on freedom of
the press, all this crackdown will
spread to the West.”
Wong’s music is banned in Mainland
China because of his outspokenness
against Beijing.
Like other recent notable Hong
Kong visitors including activist
Joshua Wong who testifi ed before
Congress with Ho, Wong is looking
for the US to come to his city’s aid.
Wong tightened his body and
his arms against himself, his most
physically expressive moment
throughout the hour and a half interview,
and said, “Whoever wants
to have a relationship with China,
no matter what kind of relationship,
a business relationship, an
artistic relationship, or even in the
academic world, they feel the pressure,
they feel that they have to be
quiet sometimes. So we all, we are
all facing this situation, because
China is so big they really want the
free world to compromise.”
Wong added, “America is the biggest
democracy in the world, and
they really have to use their infl uence
to help Hong Kong. I hope they
know this is not only a Hong Kong
issue. This will become a global issue
because China really wants to
rule the world.”
Of that prospect, he said, “That’s
very scary.”
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